you will learn how to break with your dying will
by lifexlemons
Summary: Tsuna was just a less-than-average boy living a less-than-average life. And then one day a mysterious baby showed up out of nowhere and told him: "You are going to be the tenth generation Vongola break-dancing crew leader." Say what? AU obviously.
1. chapter one: that bboy from italy

**chapter one**

It all started with this: "My job is to make sure you become a suitable leader for the Vongola crew," said Reborn.

With those words, everything in Sawada Tsuna's life changed.

* * *

No, in retrospect, it started with: "I hired a personal trainer for you," said Tsuna's mother as he walked into his room, only to be confronted with the sight of a small baby sitting on his bed, armed with a very large gun.

"Ciaossu," said the baby, and Tsuna spluttered with disbelief.

* * *

But if you think about it, _really_, didn't it all begin when:

"Hey, Dame-Tsuna, catch the ball!"

As was typical with Tsuna's life, he caught the ball with his face. The force of the throw sent him colliding painfully with the ground, while his teammates grumbled.

"Every team you're on loses," said Tanaka, scrunching up his face into an expression which suggested that Tsuna was worth less than the ground he was currently sprawling on.

"I'm sorry," said Tsuna meekly.

"Of course you are," said Sasaki. "That's why you're doing the cleaning!"

"Wait—" Tsuna struggled up to his feet, and then frantically did his best to catch the broom his laughing teammates threw at him.

"That guy is completely useless," he heard Tanaka saying to the others as they walked out of the field house.

"Grades?"

"They're horrible."

"Sports?"

"Any team Dame-Tsuna joins loses!"

His shoulders slumped. It was all true. The only reason he ever came to school was to see Sasagawa Kyoko. And now there was this rumor going around that she was dating Mochida, captain of the _kendo_ club at their school…it all seemed so pointless. His entire _life _was pointless.

Tsuna walked over to the window and peered out at the courtyard. If only he could be like everyone else…not such a failure.

Suddenly, Tsuna frowned. There was someone in the courtyard, a small baby by the look of it. Only the baby was absurdly dressed: wearing a fedora, huge T-shirt, baggy pants, and very colorful sneakers. Tsuna grinned at the sight, and then his grin abruptly dropped off his face as the baby proceeded to do continuous somersaults.

"What the hell?" said Tsuna, pressing his face against the window.

As if that shock wasn't enough, the baby then began to—

Tsuna's jaw dropped. He had to hallucinating. There was no way a small baby was break-dancing. _Break-dancing_.

He closed his eyes for a few moments, and then opened them. The courtyard was empty.

"It must have been a hallucination," Tsuna said loudly to himself. "Caused by stress." He nodded. That made a lot more sense than seeing a one-year-old break-dancing.

And that he was hallucinating probably meant it was time to go home. He sighed, and walked out of the room. As he made his way downstairs, he wondered why, out of all the hallucinations he could have possibly had, he had hallucinated a small baby break-dancing. Couldn't he have had a pleasant hallucination, like Kyoko kissing him?

He promptly blushed at the thought. "There's no way that could happen."

By the time Tsuna reached his house, he'd managed to neatly shove the sight into the "Things that Never Happened" compartment of his brain.

(It was a useful compartment to have, especially for one with such an embarrassing life as Tsuna's. It enabled him to pretend the non-existence of events he'd rather not recall, though at times, the compartment would overflow. His life was just too much of a failure for it not to.)

"_Okaasan_! I'm back!" he yelled, as he made his way upstairs.

To his surprise, she answered him back with, "Tsu-kun! Come to your room!"

Her waiting in his room was never good. Tsuna gritted his teeth and prepared to for another Your-Life-Is-Destined-To-End-In-Failure-If-You-Don't-Try-Harder-I'm-So-Disappointed-In-You lecture. Every mother in the world was armed with this lecture, but Tsuna got it on a daily basis.

Tsuna walked into his room, and then nearly toppled over with shock.

"I've hired a personal trainer for you," said his mother, beaming and looking completely unaffected by the fact that there was a baby sitting on Tsuna's bed, and holding a very large gun.

"Ciaossu," said the baby.

Tsuna spluttered for a few minutes before he was able to get out, "You were the baby in the courtyard!"

"My name's Reborn."

"It was you!"

"Tsunayoshi," said his mother. "You're being rude to Reborn-san."

Tsuna mouthed a few words frantically but nothing came out.

"I'll go and get some drinks," chirped his mother, and left Tsuna's room.

Reborn waited a beat, and when it looked as if Tsuna wouldn't be getting out of his state of shock any time soon, said "My job is to make sure you become a suitable leader for the Vongola crew."

"What?" No matter how many times Tsuna turned the words around in his head, they failed to make sense. "Vongola crew?"

"You're going to be the leader of the tenth generation," said Reborn, as if it all made sense. Which to him, it probably did, in some twisted way. And he still was holding that gun, rendering it impossible for Tsuna to do anything like bodily remove the baby from his room. "I was hired by a certain man to train you."

"Wait," said Tsuna. "What is the Vongola crew?"

Reborn raised his eyebrows, which looked extremely strange for a baby to do. "You've never heard of them?"

"Why would I have?" snapped Tsuna, annoyed that he was being lectured by a one-year-old.

"That's no matter," said Reborn, ignoring his reply. "Tomorrow you will meet in the field house at lunch. That is when your training will begin."

"But—"

Reborn raised his gun, and Tsuna's protest trailed off into a decidedly unmanly squeak.

"Or else," said Reborn, and then hopped out of Tsuna's window. For a few, frozen seconds, Tsuna simply stared. And then he rushed over to the window. His room, after all, _was _on the second floor.

There was no one in sight, and the lack of a mangled body on the ground dispelled Tsuna's fear that the baby had just stupidly plunged to his death. Still, now it seemed like Tsuna hallucinations had gotten worse. Such was his life.

Just then, Tsuna's mother entered the room again, holding a tray of drinks. "Oh?" she said. "Did Reborn leave already?"

"Reborn," said Tsuna slowly. It hadn't been a hallucination?

"Tsu-kun," said his mother impatiently. "Sometimes you can be so slow. I've said already, I hired him as a personal trainer!"

"I don't need a personal trainer!"

His mother gave him a look.

"I don't!"

"Sooner or later," said his mother severely, "You will have to decide what to do with your life, Tsu-kun! And you could really use some discipline now. I'm sure you could get good grades if you just tried harder."

"Whatever," mumbled Tsuna. Why couldn't she understand that there was just no point in trying harder? He just screwed up at whatever he did.

"I'm going to sleep!" said Tsuna loudly, in an attempt to stave off another lecture.

His mother stared at him, hands on her hips. "It's the middle of the afternoon!"

Tsuna pulled his bedcover his head in response and refused to open his eyes until he heard the sound of her leaving his room and going back downstairs.

All of this was just—stupid. He didn't want a personal trainer, even one that could do somersaults. He didn't _need_ a personal trainer.

Tsuna turned over on his side and slept.

* * *

He had an extremely strange dream that night. He dreamt of a stage and flashing lights. There was a crowd chanting that mysterious name over and over again: "Vongola! Vongola! Vongola!"

Tsuna woke up covered in sweat, his eyes stinging. He glanced at the clock beside his bed automatically, and then stared in complete shock. The clock read 7:32 a.m.

The realization hit him with the force of a homicidal cow: school started at 7:35 a.m.

"Oh crap!"

* * *

Though Tsuna had, for once in his life, gotten lucky and managed to avoid Hibari Kyoya, leader of the Namimori Middle Discipline Committee, he spent the morning of his classes in a daze. School usually depressed him for several reasons, one of them primarily being that he never had any friends to eat with during lunch. Now though, he was dreading lunchtime even more than he usually did.

When the bell rang, Tsuna drew in a deep breath and stood up, clutching his _bento_ tightly. It was time to go to the field house, and confront Reborn and tell him he didn't need a personal trainer.

Or at least, that was the plan.

By the time Tsuna managed the find the field house, lunch was nearly half over. He took a quick glance around, saw that there was no one around, and slipped into the field house. He dropped his _bento_.

Reborn was break-dancing. Again.

"You're late!" said Reborn, coming to a stop in the middle of one of those spinning moves that Tsuna didn't know the name of.

"I couldn't find—" began Tsuna, and then said instead, "That's not what—I don't want to have you has my personal trainer! Find someone else to tutor!"

Reborn stared at him. "You have no choice in this."

"W-what do you mean I have no choice?"

"I told you before," said Reborn, "A man hired me to train you. I will teach you everything necessary in order to become the leader of the Vongola crew."

"Wait," said Tsuna. He'd finally connected the dots. "The Vongola…break-dancing crew?"

"That's right," said Reborn, and looked pleased. "So you have heard of them."

"Only because I heard my classmates—" Tsuna broke off. Kyoko _had _mentioned the Vongola crew before to one of her friends. She'd even looked like she thought they were pretty cool. But— "I don't want to learn how to break-dance!"

Reborn brought out his gun. "Oh?"

Tsuna swallowed hard, backing away rapidly. "If I learn how to break-dance, I'll definitely mess up! And I'll break my neck, or my spine, and I'll be paralyzed for life!"

"That won't happen," scoffed Reborn. He narrowed his eyes. "And it's that kind of attitude that makes you fail."

Tsuna winced. Reborn didn't have to say it so bluntly even if it was true.

"Now get over here," continued Reborn. "I'm going to tell you about the history of break-dancing, called bboying or breaking among most of those who actually do it. By the way, boys are called bboys, and girls are called bgirls."

Reluctantly, Tsuna edged closer, and at a gesture from Reborn, sat down.

This was it, he thought. He'd hit rock bottom—being forcibly taught by a baby how to break-dance. In order to stave off the inevitable weeping that followed such a realization, Tsuna stuffed his mouth full of rice from his _bento_.

"Breaking emerged during the 1970s. Of course, there is some dispute about where it started…but I believe it was in Bronx, New York." Reborn paused at this point to give Tsuna a threatening glare. "You better be paying attention, because I'll quiz you on this later."

"Argghle," managed Tsuna through a mouthful of rice.

"There are four elements of breaking: toprock, downrock, power moves, and freezes or suicides."

Tsuna groaned. It all sounded so complicated.

"Toprock is what you do while still standing up," said Reborn, continuing on and ruthlessly ignoring Tsuna's pained expression, "Downrock is what you do on the floor. Examples of power moves are windmills or flares or swipes. Finally, you can think of freezes as poses."

Tsuna blinked. "Poses?"

"Poses." Reborn nodded, and then gestured at Tsuna to stand up. "We'll get you started with basic toprock."

"But the bell will ring! I have to get to class!" protested Tsuna. Right on cue, the bell did ring.

"Fine," said Reborn. "Get back to class. I'll walk with you."

Tsuna sighed. Now he couldn't go back home midway through his classes, which was probably what his mother had intended. He still couldn't believe that she had hired Reborn to teach him how to break-dance. It made no sense whatsoever.

They walked to Tsuna's homeroom in silence, Tsuna wondering what he could say. Reborn seemed lost in thought, staring deeply at the ground. Abruptly, Reborn stopped walking, and prodded Tsuna with the gun. He was at a zero-tolerance campus! What was Reborn doing, waving that gun around?

"That boy," said Reborn, and Tsuna followed where the gun was pointing to see Yamamoto Takahashi, possibly the most popular boy at Namimori Middle.

"What about Yamamoto?"

"He'll be a good addition to the crew," said Reborn, and smiled with a glee that was terrible to behold.

"The _crew_?" Tsuna's voice rose and squeaked at the end. He sounded like a mouse that had been stepped on, really. "What crew!"

"The crew you're going to make," said Reborn, and gave him a disappointed look. "The tenth generation Vongola crew."

"I'm not going to—Yamamoto wouldn't even be interested! He plays baseball!"

"He's got flow," said Reborn, ignoring Tsuna. "He'll be a great addition."

"Flow," said Tsuna weakly.

"Flow is everywhere," said Reborn. "Like God. Unlike Him, flow doesn't watch you in the shower."

Tsuna made another strangled sound, and at this point, wondered if it was possible to just _run away _from the mess that his life had become.

Sadly, he knew this was impossible.

"Now get to class," said Reborn, thwacking Tsuna over the head with the gun. "And come back home straight away so you can began learning how to break."

Before Tsuna could come up with a good argument, Reborn vanished. He was left staring at the space where Reborn had been standing merely seconds before, and wondering if teleportation was something all bboys learned as part of their breaking skill set, or if it was unique to Reborn.

And then he realized he was going to be late for class again.

* * *

At the end of the day, Tsuna was ready to go home and just collapse into bed. The fact that Reborn was waiting at his house for him though, made Tsuna pack up very slowly. As he packed, he watched Kyoko out of the corner of his eye.

She looked particularly pretty today, and as always, her smile was innocent and carefree. Tsuna sighed heavily without meaning to, and froze when she turned to look at him.

"Hey Sawada-kun," said Kyoko. "How did you do on the last quiz for math?"

Tsuna flinched a little. "Not that g-great."

"Oh," said Kyoko. "That's too bad. Good luck on Friday's!"

She began to turn away, and Tsuna called out, "Have you heard of the Vongola crew?"

Kyoko turned back to him, looking surprised. "That break-dancing crew?"

"Uh, yeah," said Tsuna.

"I think they're amazing," said Kyoko, and smiled. Tsuna stared, unable to help himself. If he did become leader of the tenth generation Vongola crew, could he make Kyoko smile like this?

"I'm thinking of learning how to break-dance," blurted Tsuna.

"I didn't think Sawada-kun would be interested in anything like break-dancing," said Kyoko, looking startled.

There was boisterous laughter from behind them, and Tsuna spun around, blushing desperately to see Mochida and his friends leaning against the doorway, their faces twisted in mirth.

"Dame-Tsuna? Learning how to break-dance? That's pathetic." Mochida sneered.

Tsuna made a small whimper inside of his head. He hadn't meant to say it aloud, and now people besides Kyoko had heard him. Everyone _would _laugh, he thought dully.

"Yeah, there's no way that could happen," jeered one of Mochida's friends. "Dame-Tsuna would never be able to break-dance!"

"That's not true!" said Kyoko suddenly, and Mochida and his friends stopped laughing abruptly, while Tsuna looked up, his eyes wide and his heart pounding. Had Kyoko just…?

"I don't think it's very nice to laugh at someone for trying out a new hobby," said Kyoko. "I'm sure Sawada-kun could learn how to break-dance if he wanted to!" She glared at Mochida, and then swept out of the room, her face flushed with anger.

There was dead silence in the room for a few seconds, and then Mochida broke it with, "You just made me have my first argument with my girlfriend. You're dead, Sawada!"

"I didn't mean to—" tried Tsuna, but he knew it was hopeless. Never-mind that he hadn't even started this in the first place! OK, well, maybe he sort of had, stupidly trying to impress Kyoko when he wasn't even really sure he _did _want to learn how to break-dance from Reborn—

"Tomorrow," said Mochida, "We'll meet in the dojo for a one-on-one fight. We'll see what you're made of!"

Before Tsuna had a chance to protest his innocence again, he and his friends left, stomping heavily through the hallway.

"Great," said Tsuna to the empty room.

* * *

By the time Tsuna made it back to his house, he was in such a state of nervous agitation that he tripped over the statues in the front yard twice, walked directly into the front door several times before realizing the doorway was three feet to his right, and then had to take four tries to just walk up the stairs to his room. Every time he thought of Mochida's threat, his feet refused to move.

"I'm going to die," said Tsuna when he opened the door to his room as saw Reborn calmly reading shounen manga on his bed.

"You sure took your time," replied Reborn, tossing the manga off to the side carelessly.

"I'm going to die," said Tsuna, ignoring that blatant mistreatment of _One Piece_. It wasn't worth it, getting angry about something as trivial as that when he was going to die at the tender age of fourteen. He was too young to die! There was so much he hadn't even accomplished in life (for example: confessing to Kyoko how he really felt about her).

"You're not going to die," said Reborn. He paused, and then added thoughtfully, "Unless I decide to kill you."

_That _managed to penetrate Tsuna's shock, and he backed up a few steps. When Reborn looked distracted, Tsuna dived through the doorway, frantically ran downstairs, and thus escaped the horror of his life. He proceeded to drop out of school, yet through an amazing series of happenings, became a master ramen chef and opened his own restaurant. Tsuna then became famous throughout the world, with many celebrities visiting his restaurant. One day, Kyoko came to his restaurant and finally, he told her—

"Tsuna. Pay attention." Tsuna whimpered as his daydream abruptly fell crashing about his ears. Become a ramen chef? Was that really the best fantasy his mind could come up with? It wasn't like he even _liked _ramen.

"Now, we will begin with toprock," said Reborn, "You will learn the Indian Step."

"I will?"

"It's very basic," said Reborn, and demonstrated.

Tsuna stared. "Is that really break-dancing? It's just stepping around!"

"I'll put on some music," said Reborn, and turned on speakers that Tsuna hadn't noticed before.

"Where did those come from!"

"They're mine," said Reborn, and music began blasting through the house. "Huh." He turned the volume down slightly. "Begin!"

"I don't know how!"

Reborn leapt up and thwapped Tsuna over the head. "Ow!"

"I just showed you," said Reborn. "Step forward, with your knee up, at a ninety-degree angle with your right foot. Take your right foot, lift your knee up, and take it back to the original position. Repeat the same with your left foot in an opposite direction."

Tsuna tried and felt horribly self-conscious.

"Hmm," said Reborn. "Make sure you're on your toes, not flat-footed. Move your feet one at a time."

"This is embarrassing," mumbled Tsuna as he practiced.

"You'll get used to it," Reborn told him. "And move your arms. Don't let them hang by your side like dead fish."

After a few minutes of repeating the steps, Tsuna stopped. "Can't we do something else?" he pleaded.

Reborn tilted his head to one side. "Oh? You actually want to learn now?"

Tsuna remembered how Kyoko had smiled. "I guess so."

"All right then," said Reborn. His eyes gleamed scarily and Tsuna was suddenly filled with the intuition that he was not enjoy what was going to happen next. "Let's go!"

* * *

When Tsuna arrived at school the next day, he noticed everyone around him pointing at him, and giggling behind their hands. He brushed it off, used to being the butt of some unknown joke and too sore from Reborn's relentless drilling yesterday to want to find out.

It wasn't until Tsuna saw Kyoko that he remembered what had happened yesterday. It seemed incredible that he had actually forgotten Mochida's threat. Even worse, Tsuna was sure he knew now why everyone was sniggering at him. Doubtless, Mochida and his friends had spread the tale of Tsuna's claim of learning how to break-dance to everyone in school.

As if to confirm this thought, a girl sitting on his left—Keiko, her name was—turned to Tsuna and whispered loudly, "Been taking any break-dancing lessons lately?"

All the girls sitting near her laughed, and Tsuna bit his lip, wanting desperately to never have to come back to school ever again. The only thing that steadied him was Kyoko's concerned glance towards him, when the teacher scolded them for being noisy.

He just had to endure, thought Tsuna to himself. And try and avoid Mochida during lunch.

And why _did_ everything horrible happen during lunch?

As soon as the bell rang, Tsuna got up, and walked hastily to the exit. He ignored the cries of, "Where are you going, Dame-Tsuna?" and wondered if Mochida and his friends would think to look for him if he hid in the boy's bathroom. Or maybe that was too obvious.

Before Tsuna could get far, though, a heavy fist thudded right past him. Tsuna froze, trembling. The fist was attached to the huge, hulking form of Yamada Akio, vice-captain of the _kendo _club.

"Where do you think you're going?" rumbled Yamada.

Tsuna's shoulders slumped. It seemed like there would be no escape. He followed Yamada to the dojo, wondering frantically how he was supposed to fight against Mochida. He'd never done _kendo_ before! In fact, he probably wouldn't even be able to move, wearing that heavy armor.

Perhaps he could just stand still and let Mochida hit him. And Mochida, seeing how pathetic Tsuna was, would just leave Tsuna alone?

But then he thought of Kyoko watching. He couldn't just let himself get helplessly beaten by her boyfriend as she _watched_.

That was it; the only way out of this was just to run. Tsuna eyed Yamada, took a deep breath, and eyed the amount of space in the corridor. He could probably make that gap between those two gawking students—or if he told Yamada he needed to go to the toilet, Yamada would be distracted—

"Ciaossu."

Tsuna promptly fell over. "Reborn? What are you doing here?"

"Observing your actions," said Reborn. "As future leader of the Vongola crew, you had better not be thinking of running away from a battle."

"I wasn't," said Tsuna weakly.

"Good," said Reborn, and then eyed him. And then he sighed.

Tsuna twitched. "What are you sighing for? I'm the one who wants to sigh!"

"This is a chore," said Reborn, and before Tsuna had a chance to say anything further, brought up his gun and shot Tsuna with it.

What the hell, thought Tsuna, regret filling his entire body. He didn't want to die yet.

Barely aware of what he was doing (and what he wasn't wearing), Tsuna stood up, determination blazing in his eyes. "I'm going to do it! With my dying will, I'll show you all!"

He sped off towards the dojo, ignoring Yamada's shouts behind him. As soon as he arrived, he slammed the doors open. A distant part of his mind noted that a crowd had already gathered inside.

Tsuna charged towards Mochida, shouting, "Battle!"

Mochida burst out laughing. "Only an idiot would run in naked!" He brought his wooden sword down, directly on top of Tsuna's head.

By all rights, Tsuna should have collapsed onto the floor in a limp heap, but instead of dropping to the ground, Tsuna ignored the blow and head-butted Mochida.

Mochida fell, his mouth gaping open with shock.

Tsuna turned his back on Mochida in obvious dismissal, and faced everyone else instead. And then he began to break-dance, starting with the toprock that Reborn had taught him, and then doing basic downrock. He ended with a simple freeze.

Everyone stared. And then, gradually, everyone began to cheer. The flame that had been burning brightly on Tsuna's forehead fizzled out and he stared as everyone clapped him on his back.

"It seems like you really can break-dance!" said Tanaka.

"I have newfound respect!" shouted someone else.

Tsuna looked around himself wildly. He only had dim recollections of what had happened minutes beforehand. What had he done?

No, more importantly, had he just beat Mochida?

"Tsuna-kun," said Kyoko from behind him.

He closed his eyes. She probably thought he had been ridiculous.

"You are incredible," said Kyoko, and Tsuna choked. Up until this moment, he hadn't realized it was possible to choke on one's saliva.

Tsuna turned around, and looked into Kyoko's eyes as she said brightly, "Like, you're not some average guy."

Exactly what had Reborn shot him with?

* * *

**A/N: Yay for line breaks, let us all praise line breaks. OK, I don't know what I've done here. Really, I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'VE DONE. So, reviews would be appreciated, though ones like, "You have forever tainted the spirit of bboying with your fanfiction!" will make me curl up in a ball and whimper, because YOU MAY BE RIGHT. Oh God. What have I done.**

**Oh yeah, and stuff like pairings, what's going to happen in the future...I don't even know! I'm looking forward to introducing Gokudera though, that's for sure. :]  
**


	2. chapter two: bboy dynamite

**A/N: A few notes before this chapter begins. Firstly, if you don't know what windmills are, you should look them up on YouTube. :] Secondly, the Mind 180 vs. Rivers Crew is a real cypher-battle-thingy that can also be looked up through YouTube. Thirdly, Bboy Born is a real person. But as you no doubt can guess, he is not affiliated with the mafia/KHR (but he's in the Mind 180 vs. Rivers Crew video on YouTube!). Finally, I got the "cypher etiquette rules" from Mad Tek, who published them online. You can find them if you stalk hi-I mean, if you know where to look. Umm...I feel like I'm forgetting something I should tell you but I can't remember what. Oh wait, now I remember: the beginning follows the manga pretty closely, but then begins to diverge after the trio is established. :D**

"REBORN!" shouted Tsuna, bursting into his room. He was still full of adrenaline from whatever that strange incident had been—beating down Mochida and then break-dancing? He couldn't believe it.

Tsuna stopped temporarily at the sight in front of him: Reborn was lying on a cot next to Tsuna's bed, peacefully napping. A sleep-bubble blew from his nose.

If one didn't know Reborn as well as Tsuna did, one would be utterly deceived by how innocent Reborn looked napping. As it was, Tsuna was undeterred and stepped forward purposefully.

Reborn was _not _going to get with speaking in half-riddles any longer. He was going to clear things up, and questions would be answered—

Tsuna tripped over a thin wire, and abruptly, something exploded.

"Rarrrgh," said Tsuna, coughing on the smoke, and watched balefully with stinging eyes as Reborn floated away on a parachute, still asleep.

* * *

As much as Tsuna would have liked to tell you that he had immediately gotten direct and wonderfully clear answers to all of his questions, in the end, it wasn't until the next morning—very early in the morning—that Reborn felt like telling him anything.

"What did you shoot me with?" asked Tsuna, fighting back a yawn. "I mean, what was that bullet?"

Reborn looked completely unaffected despite the fact that it was 5 in the morning, though he was still wearing his nightcap and pajamas. Tsuna glared darkly at him. Nearly all of Tsuna's clothes had been destroyed when his room had been blown up last night. (Not to mention, Tsuna had had to spend the night in the guest room.)

"That was the dying will bullet," said Reborn. "A person shot with that bullet will resurrect with dying will after dying."

"What?" Tsuna stared at him in disbelief.

"The dying will mode lasts five minutes," continued Reborn. He looked bored now. "After five minutes, you revert back to normal."

"That's not what—I mean, you're a break-dancer—"

"Bboy."

"Fine, you're a bboy—why are you carrying around a gun? Why did you shoot me?"

"These bullets are meant to help you with your training," said Reborn, and patted the gun fondly.

"Training to become…"

"The leader of the Vongola crew," finished Reborn.

Tsuna crossed his arms and glared at Reborn. "What if I don't want to become the leader of the Vongola crew?"

"Like you have any choice," said Reborn, and fell back asleep. It was 5:05 a.m. now.

Tsuna gritted his teeth and vengefully threw a pillow in Reborn's direction. The pillow landed a good five feet away from Reborn, who snored loudly, as if mocking Tsuna's pathetic attempt.

"This is seriously messed up," muttered Tsuna to himself. It seemed like Reborn wouldn't tell him anything unless he felt like it. And no way did Tsuna want to risk waking Reborn up again. Who knew what kind of traps he'd set up this time?

Disconsolate, Tsuna went downstairs and got some cereal. Outside, the sun had yet to rise. He couldn't fall back asleep now, after having woken up. He supposed that there was nothing wrong with going to school early, though he was pretty sure no one came to school _this _early.

Suddenly, as he made his way from the kitchen to the living room, Tsuna tripped over something in the dark. "Ow!"

He nearly spilled his cereal, but managed to balance the bowl just in time. When he squinted down at the object that had tripped him up, he saw it was a video tape of some sort.

"What's this?"

Curious, Tsuna walked over and slid the video tape in to watch it. Immediately, sound boomed from the speakers, and Tsuna cringed, hastily fumbling with the knob. He paused and listened. Incredibly enough, it seemed like both his mother and Reborn had slept through that burst of noise.

Tsuna turned his attention back to the video and stared, cereal completely forgotten. The video was obviously about some kind of event; at the top of the screen, in golden letters, were the words: "Mind 180 (US) vs. Rivers (Korea)."

On the screen, a large group of people-all males, Tsuna noticed-stood in a loose, shifting circle. Suddenly, one of them began break-dancing impressively, and everyone in the circle cheered.

Amazing, thought Tsuna, hypnotized. What these guys were doing made his own attempts at break-dancing—bboying, corrected Reborn's voice in his head—seem completely ridiculous.

Weirdly enough, the longer Tsuna watched, the more he felt an inarguable desire steal over him. It couldn't be desire to dance like that, could it?

Tsuna shook his head firmly. No way. He did _not _want to become part of a break-dance crew. Though…maybe if Kyoko—

"Argh," said Tsuna, and banged his head against the living room table.

* * *

When he arrived to school, it was to see Hibari disappearing around the corner. Tsuna sighed in relief. That had been a narrow miss.

"You're early."

For the second time in his life, Tsuna choked on his saliva. He whirled around, cowering against the school gate as Hibari walked closer. How had Hibari managed to get _behind_ him when he had been turning the corner only seconds before?

"Y-yes," said Tsuna, and then added, "It's not against rules to come early?" Unfortunately, that came out sounding more like a question than anything else.

"Wao," said Hibari, eyes narrowed. And then he jumped lithely _over Tsuna's head_ and continued walking as if nothing had happened.

Tsuna waited for his knees to stop trembling enough so that he could walk, and after a few minutes, proceeded to do so unsteadily, into the school courtyard.

What he couldn't understand was why Hibari was here so early, too. It wasn't as if Hibari—oh wait, that was right. Hibari practically lived in Namimori Middle. If Namimori Middle could, it would probably file a restraining order against Hibari.

Tsuna made his way to his classroom, which was still empty. Tsuna wasn't surprised; after all, it was only 6:15 a.m. and school didn't start for another good hour. Probably no one was on campus yet except for himself and Hibari.

He froze at the thought. Tsuna was alone on campus…with Hibari. That meant, he thought frantically, if Hibari _felt like it_, he could totally get away with murdering Tsuna!

There was no time to waste; Tsuna had to hide. He ran out of his classroom, wondering where Hibari was. After he'd jumped over Tsuna's head, he had headed in what looked like the direction of the science building. Directly opposite of the science building was the baseball field.

Tsuna set off for the baseball field, thinking that this was all Reborn's fault. If he was murdered by Hibari, thought Tsuna, he'd come back as a ghost and haunt Reborn and it would totally serve Reborn right. Heh.

As Tsuna made his way closer to the baseball field, he thought he could see someone on there. His steps faltered. Surely that wasn't Hibari? He took a few more cautious steps, and then sighed in relief. Whatever obsessive love Hibari held for the school, he wouldn't be caught dead in a Namimori baseball uniform.

It was slightly hard to believe though, that someone besides himself and Hibari would be up. By the looks of it, this person was hard at work, training at baseball.

Wait. There was only one person Tsuna knew who worked so hard at baseball. He walked closer to the field, until he could see the person's face. And yes, it was the one and only Yamamoto Takeshi—

"Watch out!"

The next thing Tsuna knew, he was flat on his back and staring at the sky. The sky was lightening now to a light blue as the sun rose, Tsuna observed muzzily. He felt slightly sick.

"Sawada Tsuna, right? Are you OK?"

Tsuna turned his head slightly to see Yamamoto crouched next to him, peering down in concern.

He tried saying he was fine, but what really came out of his throat was: "Mmph."

Yamamoto seemed even more worried now. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to throw the ball at you! Can you sit up?"

"Yeah," said Tsuna. The dizziness was receding now. "I'm okay now."

"That's good," said Yamamoto, obviously relieved. And then he grinned. "You came out of nowhere, haha."

"That's not true," protested Tsuna. He'd been walking towards Yamamoto very obviously!

"Well, I'm glad you weren't hurt seriously," said Yamamoto. "Especially with your break-dancing and all!"

Tsuna gave him a sheepish grin. "You heard about that, huh?"

"Everyone heard about it!" said Yamamoto, clapping him on the back enthusiastically. "You were great."

"Not really," said Tsuna. The fact that Yamamoto—most popular boy at Namimori Middle—was talking to _him_, Dame-Tsuna, had just hit him. This was slightly surreal.

"Actually," said Yamamoto, "I'm wondering if you could give me some advice."

"Me? Give you advice?" Tsuna gave him a look of disbelief. What kind of advice could Yamamoto need from him?

Yamamoto mistook Tsuna's disbelief for encouragement, and continued with, "Honestly, lately, my baseball isn't going that well. No matter how much I practice, my average is dropping and my fielding is screwing up. At this rate, it'll be the first time I don't start since I began playing baseball."

"Oh," said Tsuna to fill in the expectant silence.

Yamamoto turned to him. "Tsuna…what should I do?"

"BEHH?" Tsuna coughed. He didn't know—

"Just kidding," said Yamamoto, smiling. His smile didn't reach his eyes, though. "Lately, you're so reliable, I just…"

Tsuna bit his lip. He'd never seen this side of Yamamoto before, and he wanted to give advice—but he had no idea what to say.

"I guess," he said haltingly, and thought back to what Reborn had told him before, "If you practice harder, and put in more effort, then you'll get better."

"Yeah," said Yamamoto unexpectedly. "I thought that was it too!" He grinned. "Alright, from now on, I'll be sure to practice like this everyday!"

Tsuna grinned back at him, relieved that his advice had been accepted.

"Well," said Yamamoto, "It's seven already! I'm going to go and take a shower in the boys' locker room. See you later in class!"

"Sure," responded Tsuna. He was feeling in equal parts both stunned and happy. That Yamamoto thought he could ask Tsuna advice and that Tsuna had actually helped him was beyond amazing.

There were some people in the courtyard already. Tsuna recognized a few classmates, but unlike how he was normally treated, his classmates waved and smiled instead of calling him Dame-Tsuna and laughing at him. Tsuna's mood went up even further.

And all of this had happened because of Reborn, thought Tsuna.

When he ducked into his classroom, 1-A, Tsuna noticed groups of people chattering with each other excitedly.

"What's happening?" he asked.

"There's a rumor that a transfer student is coming today," said someone behind him, and Tsuna turned around to see Kurokawa Hana, Kyoko's friend.

"Oh," said Tsuna.

"By the way," said Hana. "I came to tell you that Kyoko has broken up with Mochida."

"Really?" Tsuna flushed as Hana smiled knowingly. "I mean, w-why are you telling me—"

"Apparently," said Hana, "Mochida was going around telling people that Kyoko was his 'prize.' He's such a jerk." She paused, and then said, "Though I can't figure out what she sees in you either."

Tsuna cringed.

"Everyone, sit down!" said the homeroom teacher, who was just entering. Behind her was an extremely strange-looking boy.

"That must be the transfer student!" hissed someone behind Tsuna.

"Quiet!" barked the teacher. When silence had fallen, she said, "Today, we have a new transfer student who was studying overseas in Italy. Gokudera Hayato."

Italy was Reborn's homeland, thought Tsuna. Was Italy full of weird people? Gokudera didn't look like a student; he looked like a gangster. The sullen expression on his face didn't help.

"Hey, isn't he hot?" said the girl sitting behind Tsuna.

"He's come back to his homeland!" chirped Keiko on Tsuna's right.

Oh no, thought Tsuna, darting a glance towards Kyoko. His heart sunk as he caught the way-too-interested look on her face.

Suddenly, Tsuna felt a chill crawling up his spine. He turned and saw that the transfer student was glaring…right at him.

"What is it?" He clapped his hand over his mouth. He hadn't meant to say that aloud!

Gokudera headed Tsuna's way, and Tsuna manfully fought the urge to just get up and run away. The urge began harder and harder to fight as Gokudera came closer. He looked even scarier up close. Tsuna tensed, and just as he thought Gokudera might pass him without any incident, Gokudera kicked Tsuna's desk. Hard.

What the hell, thought Tsuna, completely bewildered. He hadn't done anything to the transfer student. This was the first time they'd met.

"You know that guy, Tsuna?" asked one of his classmates.

"No way," said Tsuna. The teacher had directed Gokudera to one of the empty seats in the back, and he could feel Gokudera glaring at him even without having to turn around.

As Tsuna looked to the side, he met Yamamoto's eyes. Yamamoto gave him a sympathetic wink, and slightly cheered, Tsuna did his best to focus on the class.

* * *

"Man, Tsuna, you must have ritually disemboweled his dog or something," said Yamamoto cheerfully.

Tsuna sweatdropped. He wished Yamamoto wasn't taking this so lightly. "But I seriously don't know what I did wrong!"

"If you didn't do anything wrong, then I'm sure it'll work out," said Yamamoto, and checked his watch. "Oops, I got to go! See you later!"

"Right," said Tsuna with a pang. He'd forgotten that Yamamoto didn't normally hang out with him. He couldn't believe that this morning, he'd actually thought they might become good friends. "See you."

Tsuna sighed as he walked. He still couldn't figure out Gokudera's problem, and this was bugging him more than he wanted to admit.

Suddenly, Tsuna walked right into a group of seniors. "Oof!"

"Watch where you're going!" growled the tallest senior of the group.

"I'm sorry," said Tsuna, backing up quickly. None of the seniors were wearing the school uniform (Hibari would later have their heads for this), and one of them was sporting a tattoo on his arm very obviously.

Before the seniors could do anything more than leer menacingly, Tsuna added one more time, "I'm sorry!" and then ran off.

He reached the back of the school, and seeing no one chasing after him, slowed to a halt, gasping for breath. "That was close! I could have been beaten to death."

"Watching a wuss ass like you is painful," said someone loudly. Tsuna turned around to see none other than the transfer student, Gokudera, glaring at him.

"I-I'll be leaving now," said Tsuna quickly.

But before he could get more than a few steps, Gokudera said, "If someone like you becomes part of the Vongola crew, then its legacy will become tarnished."

Tsuna's eyes widened. "How do you know that I'm—"

"I refuse to accept it," snarled Gokudera. "I'm the one who'll be the Tenth!"

"What are you saying?"

"Just die right here!" Gokudera pulled out sticks of dynamite.

What, thought Tsuna, was up with everyone carrying weapons onto a zero-tolerance campus?

"Those are really dangerous!" yelped Tsuna.

Gokudera lit them up with the end of his cigarette. And then he tossed them at Tsuna.

Unexpectedly, a bullet knocked the dynamite sticks off their path and away from Tsuna.

"Ciaossu!"

"Reborn," said Gokudera to Reborn, who was perched on of the classroom windows and watching them.

Reborn nodded at him. "So it's you—Bboy Dynamite."

Tsuna glanced between the two. "You know each other?"

"Everyone knows Bboy Born," said Gokudera scornfully.

"It's just like I said," said Reborn, ignoring Tsuna (for probably the hundredth time), "If you succeed in beating him, you'll definitely get a chance to join the crew."

"All right," said Gokudera enthusiastically. He turned to Tsuna. "Let's battle."

Tsuna stared past him, at Reborn. "You're betraying me, Reborn?"

"No," said Reborn. "That's wrong. I'm telling you to fight."

Gokudera glared at Tsuna. "You don't think I can beat you?"

"That's not it," said Tsuna weakly. Out of nowhere, music began blasting. Tsuna turned around to see Reborn and his speakers.

When Tsuna turned back, Gokudera was already break-dancing. Unlike Tsuna's own choppy movements, Gokudera's movements were smooth and controlled, showing evidence of his practice. When Gokudera finished his set, he stood up and smirked at Tsuna.

"Wait," said Tsuna helplessly. "I can't—I can't do it!" He turned and ran.

Gokudera's expression of triumph morphed into rage. "He can't seriously be running away from this! I won't accept it!"

"Huh," said Reborn.

Tsuna could hear Gokudera chasing after him, and tried to run faster. It was no use; he just wasn't athletic enough to keep up this pace. Tsuna turned to corner, and nearly skidded into the side of the building. "Whoa! Dead end!"

"This is it," said Gokudera behind him. The expression on his face was truly scary. "I'll make you regret not even acknowledging me!"

"That's not it!" said Tsuna, but it was no use; the air was suddenly full of flying dynamite sticks.

"Fight with a dying will," he heard Reborn say distantly, and the world exploded.

"Reborn!" shouted Tsuna, once again in dying will mode. "Put out those fuses with my dying will!"

Tsuna went through each dynamite stick individually, pinching out their flames before the dynamite exploded. Within seconds, Tsuna finished defusing all of the dynamite sticks.

"Double bomb!" said Gokudera, and when that failed, tried again: "Triple—" He fumbled with one of the sticks of dynamite and the rest fell in a heap around him. "Shit."

There was absolutely no way that Tsuna could defuse all of those dynamites sticks in time if he did so individually. Tsuna took a deep breath, and began doing continuous windmills—the first power move that Reborn had tried to teach him the day before.

"Defuse!" said Tsuna, as he did his windmills. The speed and force of his windmills soon extinguished all of the dynamite. And as the dying will mode faded, Tsuna thwacked heavily onto the ground, relieved. "I made it."

Gokudera said nothing, but unexpectedly knelt down. "I was mistaken!"

"What?" Tsuna wondered if he could make a run for it now.

"You're the one who's fit to become the Tenth! I'll follow your commands!"

"_What_?"

"Good job, Tsuna," said Reborn approvingly.

Tsuna glared at him. Reborn had probably planned this—what was he thinking; _of course _Reborn had planned this!

"L-let's just go back to class," said Tsuna nervously, and then realized he was half-naked again. "I need clothes!"

"Don't worry, Tenth," said Gokudera, looking entirely too thrilled that Tsuna was apparently giving him his first command. "I'll definitely find some clothes for you!"

He disappeared in a blur, before Tsuna could tell him that he could find clothes by himself, thank you.

Tsuna groaned. Nothing in his life turned out the way it was supposed to.

* * *

Gokudera had only been able to find a spare Namimori baseball uniform and Tsuna endured the strange looks and giggles as best as he could.

At least people wouldn't be calling him a pervert as long as he was completely dressed. Though 'costume fetishist' wasn't that much better.

"Where's Yamamoto?" mused Tsuna as the bell rang. Ever since lunch, Yamamoto had been missing. And now it was the end of school; Yamamoto really wasn't the type of person to ditch class midway through the day.

Gokudera snapped to attention. "Who's Yamamoto?"

"Oh, just a classmate," said Tsuna, and shrugged, dismissing the slight unease in his mind. He had other things to worry about. "You don't have to walk me home, Gokudera."

"I insist," said Gokudera, and Tsuna eeped, cowed into nonresistance.

As they walked towards Tsuna's house, Tsuna struggled desperately to think of something to say. "So, Gokudera," said Tsuna hesitantly. "Would you tell me about yourself?"

"You want to know about me?" Gokudera looked surprised, though Tsuna couldn't tell if he was pleased or not by the question.

"Uh…yeah," said Tsuna.

Gokudera brightened. "I'm glad, Tenth! But—" The expression on his face changed so quickly that it nearly gave Tsuna a heart attack, "I'd rather not talk about my past."

"O-okay," said Tsuna.

"Let's talk about you, Tenth!" said Gokudera. "I want to know all about you!"

"I, uh, there's not much to say," fumbled Tsuna. "Uh…I met Reborn only a few days ago."

"Oh, really? So you weren't into bboying before Reborn introduced you to it?"

Tsuna still wasn't into it, really. He wasn't even sure why he was doing it! Somehow though, he didn't think Gokudera would like hearing that. "Yeah. He just taught me some basic stuff. We've been at it for two days."

Gokudera abruptly stopped walking, an awed expression on his face. "You can do continuous windmills after just two days?"

"Uh," said Tsuna. He actually _couldn't _do windmills, at least not outside of the dying will mode.

However, Gokudera took Tsuna's response as agreement. "That's amazing, Tenth! It took me a year to be able to do continuous windmills properly. You truly belong to the Vongola crew!"

"Ah," managed Tsuna. It was easiest to converse with Gokudera through a series of unintelligible noises, because it let Gokudera to all the interpreting, which meant that no harm would come to Tsuna. In theory.

"Tsuna still has a long way to go," said Reborn, reappearing out of nowhere like he always did. Tsuna jumped a foot, but Gokudera—after a moment of startlment—looked completely unphased by Reborn's sudden appearance.

"It's all right," Gokudera assured Tsuna. "You'll become an awesome bboy…and the Vongola crew will rise and be known throughout the world!" His eyes were shining with fervor. Tsuna edged away from him.

"Indeed, the Vongola will rise," agreed Reborn. And then he focused on Gokudera. "You can help Tsuna greatly, Gokudera."

"I can?"

"I'm fine—" said Tsuna, though he knew it was pointless. Everyone ignored him. Reborn _always_ ignored him.

"Yes," said Reborn. "Since Tsuna only started bboying two days ago, he doesn't know anything about the world of breaking. You can teach him more."

"It would be an honor," said Gokudera happily.

Tsuna winced. There was just no escape from this. His fate was sealed.

* * *

"So what is a cypher?" asked Tsuna.

He and Gokudera were sitting in the guest room at the Sawada house, or what was temporarily Tsuna's room (as the damage caused to Tsuna's original room from Reborn's explosives still had not been repaired as of yet). Alarmingly, Gokudera wore glasses, which clashed horribly with the delinquent-image that Tsuna was used to associating with him.

"Cypher refers to a circle of bboys, who take turns dancing in the center," explained Gokudera. He looked at Tsuna contemplatively. "There are some basic rules of etiquette for cyphers that you should know."

"I-I should?"

Reborn suddenly appeared with a flying kick, sending Tsuna gasping and wheezing into the floor.

"You may find this useful," said Reborn, and handed Gokudera a chalkboard.

Gokudera looked ecstatic. "Thanks, Reborn-san!"

"No problem," said Reborn, and kicked Tsuna again. Tsuna responded with a muffled whimper. "Pay attention. You're not a dancer unless you hit the cypher."

"Right!" agreed Gokudera enthusiastically. He finished scribbling on the chalkboard with a final flourish, and the bit of chalk he was holding promptly crumbled into light green dust as he made a triumphant fist.

"Uh," said Tsuna, squinting at the strange squiggles on the chalkboard.

"Don't worry," said Gokudera. "I'll explain everything, Tenth!"

"You don't have to," said Tsuna with no real hope that Gokudera would listen.

"These rules are all just common sense," said Gokudera, pointing at the first line of squiggles. "For example: don't dance with a drink in the cypher."

"A drink?"

"A spill can be dangerous," said Gokudera. "I've seen some painful accidents happen."

"Accidents?" said Tsuna nervously.

"Nothing for you to worry about, Tenth," reassured Gokudera. "You're brilliant!"

And before Tsuna could correct him, Gokudera pointed at the next line on the chalkboard. "Next! If you're in the inner part of the cypher, don't just stand there because you're too insecure to dance."

Tsuna hunched over, looking away from Reborn's all-too-knowing eyes.

"Another problem is hogging the cypher," said Gokudera. "Taking a lot of time and not doing much doesn't really contribute."

He looked at Tsuna expectantly, as if for agreement. Tsuna nodded vehemently, and when Gokudera turned his attention back to the chalkboard, shot a look of confusion at Reborn. Reborn just smirked.

"It's also important to gauge the size of the circle," said Gokudera. "If you're doing big moves, then you want to be aware of your surroundings."

Tsuna squinted again at the chalkboard. Gokudera seemed to have finished. Tsuna fell out of the _seiza_ position he had somehow settled into unconsciously and wobbily stood up.

"Thanks, Gokudera," he said. "It's been really informational—"

"Wait!" said Gokudera. "I'm not done."

"You're…not?"

"An important thing about cyphers," said Gokudera, producing another piece of chalk from out of nowhere and then flipping the chalkboard over, "is respect. You have to have respect for the cypher."

Gokudera proceeded to write _respect_ on the board with great enthusiasm. When he'd finished, the chalk crumbled sadly in his hand as he made another triumphant fist.

"The Vongola will definitely become great!" he said.

"There are only two crew members right now, though," said Reborn. "We must recruit more people."

"We can do it with two people," declared Gokudera.

Reborn gave him a look. "Two people don't make a crew."

Tsuna watched them argue (or really, Reborn bulldoze over Gokudera's arguments) and wondered at what point should he interject the fact that _he wasn't sure he wanted to be part of the Vongola crew._


End file.
